Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Investing for the Future

My job in the city on the financial markets leads me to research all kinds of financial products. Recently, Certificate of Deposit have been a favorite investment due to the guarantee that you will get your money back plus interest at the end of a fixed term; they are very stable investments.

Finding the highest CD rates takes some searching; many smaller banks offer CDs that have better rates than larger financial institutions - they have to to bring in the business. The highest CD rates usually come with longer term investments. Be sure to check the penalties before investing in a CD if you think there is any possibility of you withdrawing funds early.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Sky TV in Europe

Dave has found a website that sells Sky HD TV in Europe. As we are both sports fans this is going to be great for the new holiday home in Italy. It is a really good service; they take card of the Sky contract for you, all you need to do is pay them (no UK account or address needed) and they ship out a Sky HD card to Europe. Also if you need a Sky digibox they can ship that out to you as well.
Store Satellite also supply something called a Sky dialler, which connects between your Sky box and phone line; this is required so that your box can get authorisation for movies and pay-per-view.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Keeping Bees

One day when I get my big house in the country I'm going to keep bees. I love good quality honey in the mornings on my toast, and nothing would make me happier than to be spreading honey that I myself have harvested from my own honey bee hive. Of course, this is totally impractical whilst I live in the flat, but once I'm out of London (noone can stay here for ever can they?) then I can get a place with a big garden & put my own beehive in there. I'm serious! I've even been investigating how to keep bees!

Buying a New Car

So it is cheaper to buy a new car using a secured loan than just a regular personal loan. I've been hunting around and the best place to get a quote seems to be from Accepted.co.uk. They search heaps of different secured loan providers for you, all you have to do is fill out a really short form & let them go to work. Saves us the time and effort. It is free too, and no credit checks or anything are performed, so you can use it as many times as you like to play out different scenarios. Now all i have do decide on is if I get the car I should get, or the one I really want :)

Batchelor Pad in Calabria; it's Going to Happen

Dave keeps banging on about us going to take this inspection flight to Calabria to have a look for a bachelor pad... he's determined that we are going to go halves on buying an apartment out there. I keep humoring him, saying ok, lets do it and stuff, but he's actually gone and booked us inspection flights to go and look at a place. He's been dealing with the Overseas Property Shop, who have loads of experience with Spanish property, and are now the leadin company to deal with when Brits are buying property in Calabria. Guess I'm gonna have to find a few quid for a deposit, but Dave reckons that they are an ace investment.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Free Financial Advice

Did you know that you can get financial advice for free? Thats right, you don't need the expensive services of a financial planner when you're re-working your finances. The Citizens Advice Bureau offer free financial advice through their volunteer network, so even here in the City of London it is possible to avoid those big bills. If you need advice about your loans and credit cards, or have problems meeting repayments, you can contact them and they will do their best to help you out.
The first thing to do is visit their website and download some factsheets, from there you can make an appointment to meet one of their staff at a branch near you.

Credit and Loan Agreements

Most people I know in London have massive amounts of debt. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is just a facet of modern living. If you want any kind of career these days you have to get an education, and they don't come cheap. So starting out with student loans and progressing quickly on to credit cards to pay for your studies leaves most people (those without rich parents) with a hefty bill to be paid off in adult life. I have been looking at re-structuring some of my debt to make it more cost effective, and was pleasantly surprised by the level of assistance offered by the UK government, especially their 'Money Made Clear' website.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Wordpress?

I wish I had the foresight to start this blog on Wordpress instead of blogger. Owning your own domain name is important according to Dave, and I reckon Wordpress has better themes too.

Making Money Posting On Forums

My mate Dave told me about a service he is using on the internet. Dave is a web guru dude and has loads of websites. I happened to tell him that I've been playing on the internet a bit lately, and he said I could make some extra cash with this site too.
Dave uses paid posting to find people to make his new websites busy. When Dave launches a new forum he uses paid forum posters to build up the website so it looks busy and there are loads of conversations going on.
Dave said people hire paid blog posters through the website too, so I've registered and I'm going to do some paid posting work!

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Advice from a Real Estate Guru

James Smith is one of the leading real estate investment gurus in the United States. I have been checking out property investment for some time now as a way of providing me with a stable, independent income and as a way to retire early (we all want that don't we?).
Seminars by James Smith are held in different regions of the US, so you can be sure he will be coming to a city near you sometime soon. At the James Smith Real Estate Investor seminars attendees can expect to learn many of the secrets and techniques that James Smith has used over the three decades that he has spent building and refining his property portfolio.
Learn more about James Smith Real Estate.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Dividing the living room

One thing with this flat is that it is sooo small. I get really annoyed with the junk I have lying around everywhere, and I guess it doesn't look too good to visitors either. I'm buying a room divider from Home & Garden Decor to split the living area in two, so I have a sort of seperate living area and then an area for the PC and work stuff... all the books lying around makes me feel like I am at work all the time.
Home & Garden Decor have some really useful gizmos and gadgets (although the garden section is kinda redundant to me living in the flat). I get a kick out of the cool gnomes on the site, just wish I had somewhere to put one lol.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Making My Flat Smell Nice Part 3

In my ongoing search to make the flat smell better, I have come across a great looking product from As Seen On TV Products. Oxi Clean looks just the job for getting stains out of my soft furnishings (including the curtains!!) They sell it in two different sized tubs. It can be used on clothes too, so if I buy the bigger tub and have any left over I will use it on some of my Friday night curry stained shirts lol
Whilst I'm ordering I might just grab an Ab Workout Machine... another defence against the beer belly that is straining against my belt!

Searching, Searching...

Sometimes google sucks. The results for so many things are random and just wrong. That's when you need a good web directory like the Cheetah Find Web Directory.
Cheetah Find has comprehensive categories (over 200) with an integrated search tool. The great thing about it is that it doesn't just spider the web sucking in everything like google does, it only lists proper websites so that you get the good stuff that you are looking for.
Cheetah Find has some pretty good looking free web templates too, I need a template for this blog so maybe I will use one of theirs when I get time to get it done.

WTF Stuff - A Right Good Giggle

Came across a really funny weird news site earlier when I was doing some 'research' on London property prices. Looks like even my flat might be worth something if this dump is supposed to be worth $335,000 (is that about £170k?).
WTF stuff is like a weird news blog/rant type site, the author is really funny. I love the way he rips into K-fed, the loser ex of Britney Spears, and the video is pretty funny too.
WTF stuff also covers interesting stuff like what happens if you feed your pet iguana viagra (one for you there Dave), and beer for dogs. Check out WTF stuff today.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Dave's Stag Do

Went on Dave B's stag do last weekend to Alton Towers up North. Was a good bash. Thinking of sending the photos in to this stag do website, not too sure if Julie would like it tho. Tell you something, I've never been so drunk in all my days. I was ill until Wednesday morning and I've done no work all week.
Chas disappeared for a whole night, it must have been one of the maddest stag weekends on record.
Looking for stag party ideas for Neil's do next, anyone got any ideas?

Monday, February 5, 2007

Making My Flat Smell Nice Part 2

Something else that wont hurt is getting my flat spruced up a bit. The Dry Cleaners London are going to have to be called in! They do curtain cleaning and laundry service so people like me and you don't have to. They even come out to your house (or flat or office or whatever), take down your curtains, clean them, and then re-hang them for you. How good is that? lol
I'm going to get them to do my bedding too, cos it never looks great after I do it and these people make it real clean and crisp. Anyway I reckon I'm going to have the best smelling flat around once I've done this, so don't be bringing any cigarettes or dogs or smelly feet if you come round to visit.

Making My Flat Smell Nice

I'm a big fan of candles and stuff & I thought I might get some new scented ones to make the flat smell a little nicer (it's no good if it smells of my feet all the time now is it?) I found this great Italian website that sells candles, incense and ambient perfumes (or candele, incensi and profumi ambiente if you're Italian) so I reckon I might order some. They've got an English part of the site too, so if you can't follow the Italian don't worry :)